The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
(Vol. 19 No. 1)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
Monday was my birthday and I'm not looking for any happy wishes, but here's to saying that getting another year older is a good thing (Sure beats the alternative!). And, thanks to all who shot me the happy notes on Facebook.
Each year our Extension administrative team looks forward to the opportunity to get out around the state and meet with the chairs and additional members of local Extension boards at the Partnership meetings. This year we are flipping the meetings to encourage new and different discussions among Board members in attendance. The locations and dates for the 2013 Partnership meetings are as follows:
January 24, 2013 Ottawa
January 29, 2013 Abilene
January 30, 2013 Scott City
January 31, 2013 Great Bend
These locations are intended to blend the attendees from a north-south orientation rather than the conventional administrative areas. State Extension Advisory Council members expressed enthusiasm for this approach in hopes that it might create different discussions and foster sharing of different ideas for the board members attending. Each local unit can decide which meeting to attend. More information will be coming in the next month. Note in an article below the call for boards to do their self-assessment in becoming an excellent board. Please see that your local board completes the assessment and submits it in to your area director by January 1!
I'd also point out that the latest issue of the Journal of Extension has just been announced. Many good articles including mobilizing Extension as a knowledge and public issues resource around health and health care reform, importance of leadership training, women on the farm programming, utilizing technology to enhance educational outreach, and numerous other articles on a plethora of Extension programming topics. I hope you will take time to survey the titles and dive into a few of the articles that may hold information and ideas that could be of value to you and your professional work!
And, a word of thanks to all involved in Annual Conference 2012, including all who participated! And, thanks for your being present and in a positive learning mode throughout conference. Amazing all the great work that gets accomplished both in and out of the formal sessions.
Quote for the day for whom I'm not sure who to credit, "The best leaders are not those who know the answers. They ask the right questions." Be a great leader and have a great week! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
WANTED: HOST SITES FOR 2013 BOARD LEADERSHIP SERIES
The Community Development PFT is recruiting host sites for the 2013 Board Leadership Series. Series dates will be:
March 4, 11, 18, 25
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Session topics include: Basic Board Leadership and Effective Meetings; Understanding Fellow Board Members & Conflict Management; Fundraising and Management; Strategic Planning/Legal & Ethical Issues
Host Site Responsibilities:
- Promote the training opportunity to community boards and commissions in your area.
- Secure a place to host the sessions that will accommodate up to 25 people and has excellent internet access. Note: if there is a rental fee it will be the host site's responsibility to cover any cost in addition to what is returned as a portion of the registration fee.
- Prepare copies of all the meeting materials for the registered participants at your site. These will be sent by email to you the Friday before the session on Monday.
- Provide a light snack at each of the 4 sessions for the participants. You will receive some financial compensation to help defray the expense of the copying and food.
- Serve as the on site facilitator/moderator for each of the sessions. This will include managing the adobe connect interface; facilitating the interactive learning pieces; facilitating the questions and comments; providing the evaluation follow-up.
Note: Each of the 4 sessions will be taught by a team of experts using adobe connect technology. As a site host you will only be responsible for facilitating 2-3 hands on activities each session in addition to general hosting responsibilities. You will NOT be asked to teach the sessions. The Community Development PFT will provide facilitation training for all site hosts in mid-February.
This is an excellent way to deliver a local community development program. Agents/Offices interested in being a host site should contact Jennifer Wilson at jrwilson@ksu.edu by December 1. --Jennifer Wilson
PROGRAM PRIORITIZATION SURVEY
During annual conference we heard from the Program
Prioritization Task Force about the KSRE Survey that will be conducted
soon. Program Focus Teams met and are
now doing final edits of the survey questions. An electronic survey is being developed with questions submitted by
PFTs. There will soon be a URL on the
Programming Website to access to the electronic survey and also a PDF file that
can be printed for those preferring a hard copy.
In the meantime a Web page with resources reinforcing the
process is available at: www.ksre.ksu.edu/programming.
Steps in the process:
- Review the “Letter to Agents” and “Agent
Checklist” introducing the KSRE Survey process.
- Provide copies of the “Letter to Extension Board and PDC Members”
and “Extension Board and PDC Checklist”
to your extension board and PDC members.
- Review the “Survey Planning Worksheet Example” and engage PDC members in a
process of identifying individuals to take the survey. With PDC members complete the “Survey Planning Worksheet.”
Program Prioritization Task Force –
Anna
Muir, Rick Miller, Jody Holthaus, Dennis Patton, Sandra Wick, Charlotte Olsen, Rhonda
Gordon, Glynn Tonsor, Tonya Bronleewe, Belinda Oldham, Beth Hinshaw, Paula
Peters, Gregg Hadley, Barbara Stone, Margaret Phillips
MARIE'S PICKS . . .
This week my picks are short- and medium-term outcomes from
the Junior Master Gardener and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program
(EFNEP) submitted by the Nutrition, Food Safety and Health Program Focus
Team.
**In the Junior Master Gardener program,
110 students increased their knowledge of growing/harvesting vegetables,
reading nutrition labels, the six nutrient categories and basic food safety. Students
planted and harvested lettuce, spinach, radishes, and onions; compared
nutrition fact labels to make healthful food choices; made and tasted recipes
for healthy snacks; and made and tasted a salad from the vegetables they grew
and harvested.
**In the Riley County Expanded Food and
Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) participants learned how to make better
food choices, manage their food budgets, and prepare food safely. One hundred
children from the Boys and Girls Club participated in a summer nutrition
education and cooking program. Students learned about the different food
groups, how foods keep our body healthy, good hand washing, how to read food
labels, and the importance of eating breakfast.
As a result of EFNEP, 50% of graduates more often plan
meals in advance; 67% of graduates showed improvements in one or more food
resource management practices (i.e., plan meals, compare prices, use grocery
lists); 75% of graduates showed improvements in one or more nutrition practices
(i.e., make healthy food choices, prepare foods without adding salt, read
nutrition labels); 40% of graduates showed improvements in one or more food
safety practices (i.e., thaw food properly, wash hands before handling food);
62% increased their daily consumption of vegetables; and 31% increased their
daily consumption of fruits. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu
COPYRIGHT: HOW DO FILM CLIPS FIT IN 'FAIR USE' DEFENSE?
At the 2012 K-State Research and Extension Annual Conference, agents questioned the use of film clips in educational presentations to local groups. We passed the question on to Beth Turtle, associate professor and head of scholarly communications and publishing at the Kansas State University Libraries.
With the understanding this information should not be construed as legal advice, the following is excerpted from her response:
"With questions concerning fair use we generally refer people to our fair use checklist, at
http://www.k-state.edu/copyright/use/fairuse.html. It's best [to consider] the checklist for each
clip or copyrighted item. There are four factors to consider, and no single factor
trumps the others.
"Using film clips to illustrate a point or make an argument is generally considered to be a transformative
use which favors fair use. If a clip represents the 'heart of
the work' the case for fair use is not so clear. If ... educational materials [are] available online with no restriction on use (e.g., only students enrolled in a particular course have access) it could have ramifications.
"If fair use is asserted ... assure that:
- the material is properly attributed;
- to the extent possible, clips are drawn from a range of different sources;
- no more of a clip is used than necessary to achieve the intended effect; and
- no license is readily available for the use of the clip.
Repeated use might pose a problem. If [agents] will consistently
use clips throughout the year, they might want to consider asking the
library to purchase the film with licensing that allows for the use of
clips or public performance."
For clarification or to ask other copyright questions, email copyright@ksu.edu. --Nancy Zimmerli-Cates, publishing leader nancyz@ksu.edu
PART 15 FINNEY COUNTY HEALTH/WELL-BEING ASSESSMENT AND SOCIAL CAPITAL STUDY - FINAL
This will be my final submission discussing results of a
study done in Finney County. It has been
an interesting run, and I’ve appreciated your comments on varying topics of
interest. If you’re interested in more information, or
if you would like me to present on other topics regarding multi-lingual
research using mixed methods of data collection, please do not hesitate to make
contact. Now let us discuss trust.
Trust among people builds community. In their fourth edition of Rural Communities:
Legacy + Change (2012), Cornelia Flora and Jan Flora, define community as a “place
or location in which people interact for mutual benefit” (p.25). When friends, neighbors, colleagues, towns-folk,
and others are working in concert toward mutual benefit, it builds social capital. Trust is a key
ingredient. When trust is lacking,
polarization can take place, and community wanes.
Previously, I reported that education did not have an effect on one of the measurements of
social capital: social interactions with friends. Overall, 69% of respondents socialized,
publicly, more than 16 times per year. That would be considered moderate to high social capital. If your connections to others drew you toward
them more than 16 times per year, you have a network of people who would likely
help you during times of crises. You
could not say the same for, say, your Facebook “friends.” Education,
on the other hand, had a different effect on trust. Respondents were asked, “Do you trust people: almost always,
sometimes, or never?” Respondents with
high school diploma or less, tended to “sometimes” trust people in general
while those with bachelor’s or graduate degrees tended toward “almost always”
trust others. The result was similar for
the question, “Do you trust people from different ethnicities?” Qualitatively, we found, for example,
immigrants (whether economic or political refugees), felt untrusted by the
dominant culture, so, in turn, did not feel like they should/could trust that
same dominant culture.
How do communities successfully integrate multi-ethnicities
and cultures? The literature tells us to
increase knowledge and understanding of one another and decrease hegemony: the dominant culture imposes
its symbols and belief structures on the weaker (for lack of a better term)
culture. What are your ideas for
integrating differing cultures or ethnicities who share a community? I think of integration as mixing or living side-by-side without giving up
belief systems, languages, and cultures of either side. Obviously, it’s important for one to learn
the dominant language for safety and every day business transactions, but not
at the expense of the mother tongue. Multi-lingualism can be a useful skill after all. Though assimilation
and integration appear together in a
thesaurus, assimilation, to me, means complete adoption of the dominant culture
at the expense of one’s culture and language, such as what befell the American
Indian during white settlement of the United States.
Earlier in this text, I mentioned Flora and Flora’s book on
rural communities. Professors Flora
outlined the Community Capitals:
Built, Political, Natural, Financial, Cultural, Human, and Social Capital as the
seven assets that measure a thriving community. The book and its research are important to anyone working in community
development.
Finally, I will end with some of the qualitative points on social
capital of the study:
•
Political involvement was more likely in country
of origin for immigrant respondents
•
Faith-based participation was of great
importance regardless of income, race/ethnicity, or education
•
Non-Anglo least likely to talk to church leaders
re: mental health issues
•
Volunteerism was informal for non-Anglo
respondents (like helping neighbors)
•
Donating was informal for non-Anglo (like
offering money when friends/neighbors are struggling financially)
--Debra Bolton dbolton@ksu.edu
NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES: 3RD NATIONAL FESTIVAL OF BREADS AMATEUR YEAST BREAD BAKING CONTEST - DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2013
Original yeast bread recipes using King Arthur Flour and Fleischmann's Yeast may be submitted now through January 31, 2013 at www.americasbreadbasket.com.
Categories include: Ethnic Breads; Rolls; Time-Saving and Simple Breads and Whole Grain Breads. The Adult Category is open to amateur bakers 18 years of age or older. Recipes will be test-baked and judged on the following criteria: originality, taste, healthfulness, ease of preparation and appearance.
New this year is a Youth Category (12 to 17 years of age). Categories include: Rolls and Whole Grain Breads.
PRIZES:
One Adult Grand Prize Winner will be awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to a baking class of his or her choice at the King Arthur Flour Baking Education Center in Norwich, VT and a year's supply of Fleischmann's Yeast, plus receive a $2,000 cash award.
Eight Adult Finalists and one Youth Finalist will be awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Manhattan, KS, where they will bake their winning bread recipes on Saturday, June 22, 2013. In addition, they will participate in a Wheat Harvest Tour to a working Kansas wheat farm, flour mill and grain elevator.
Please assist us with promoting the contest to home bakers through their newsletters, websites, 4-H foods project leaders and more. Also, 4-Hers may want to attend the national event on Saturday, June 22, 2013 in Manhattan, KS at the new Hilton Garden Inn. This would be a wonderful national event that 4-Hers could mention in their record books. Baking sessions will be scheduled throughout the day with baking tips and great door prizes. For more information, contact Cindy Falk – cfalk@kswheat.com or Bill Spiegel – bspiegel@kswheat.com. --Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
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